ACUP Conference Just Two Months Away

By Bob Neubauer

In less than two months, higher-ed in-plant managers from all over the world will converge on Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the 51st annual Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) conference. Taking place April 10-14 at the Embassy Suites Hilton Albuquerque, ACUP 2016 will feature numerous excellent sessions and keynotes, plus a chance to network with other managers and check out the latest technologies on the vendor floor.

In the opening keynote, business and motivational coach Keri Stewart will use her engaging, interactive style to share insights on the traits of great leaders. She will discuss the importance of communication skills, the ability to motivate and personal accountability.

The ACUP board met last month in Florida. Front row, from left: Catherine Chambers, Alfred State; ACUP President Lisa Hoover, Bucknell University; Jennifer Bowers, ACUP administrative director. Back row: Steve Dimond, M.I.T.; Steve Amitrano, Rowan College at Burlington County; John Wesseling, University of Cincinnatti; Richard Griffin, retired; Richard Tussey, Eastern Kentucky University.

Tuesday’s keynote speaker, a hit at past ACUP conferences, will be Ken Macro, chair of the Graphic Communication Department at California Polytechnic State University. He will provide insights on current trends from the academic perspective and reveal how an in-plant can be more innovative and integral to the campus environment.

IPG’s own Bob Neubauer will offer a session highlighting new services in-plants are adding to increase their value. He will discuss in-plant trends and unveil the latest IPG market data, showing higher-ed attendees how their operations compare to the rest of the in-plant industry.

Other sessions will cover trends and services of major importance to in-plants such as:

Strategies for justifying new equipment.
Managing copier fleets, determining the features needed and calculating ROI on machines.
Digital envelope printers: how to justify one and decide which features you need.
Pricing strategies for your services.
Print management information systems (MIS) and how to determine which features you need.
Using benchmarks to improve performance and understanding which metrics to report.
How to measure the value of your shop’s services and share this with customers and administrators to justify your in-plant.
Creating a strategic plan to help you prioritize choices.

The international perspective: managers from the U.K., Australia and Canada will share some of the issues they are facing and trends they see in their countries.

Situated just two miles from Albuquerque’s Old Town, the conference will have a distinctive Southwestern flair, with New Mexican cuisine, a ghost tour of Old Town and a Sunday train trip to Santa Fe. The traditional ACUP T-shirt exchange will take place during the opening reception on Sunday evening.

The ACUP board meeting.

The conference will culminate with a gala dinner and awards ceremony during which winners of the ACUP Awards will be honored. Those winners were selected last month in Clearwater Beach, Florida, during the ACUP board meeting. The board also reviewed and updated the ACUP strategic plan and discussed upcoming elections and budgets.

Learn more about ACUP and register for the conference at www.acup-edu.org.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.